Professor Frederick E. Winter died Saturday evening, September 17, from complications following successful heart surgery. He was just a few weeks short of his eighty-ninth birthday.

Professor Winter wrote his doctoral dissertation on Greek Fortifications (1957) in the Department of Art and Archaeology at the University of Toronto under the direction of Professor J.W. Graham, but his committee was composed largely of members of the Classics department (and included Professors Gilbert Bagnani, W.P. Wallace, and Mary H. White). For many years he held a tenured position in the Department of Art and Archaeology (latterly Art History) here at the University of Toronto, and early in his career he also taught in the Departments of Classics at University and Trinity Colleges. Although retired for many years, he continued to be actively involved in service on the Board of the Canadian Institute in Greece.

The funeral will take place on Saturday, September 24, and a memorial service will be organized at the University of Toronto sometime in the future, date to be determined.

Memorial Event for Emeritus Professor Emmet Robbins will be held on Thursday, 3 November 2011, 4-5 pm at Room 200 Brennan Hall, St. Michael's College. Reception to follow (5-7 pm) in the Coop, St. Michael's College.

The following obituary notice appeared in the Canadian Classical Bulletin on 25 August, 2011.

The Canadian Classics community is saddened to have learned of the death of Emmet Robbins, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011. Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto from 1990 until 2000, he will be remembered by students, colleagues and friends as a compassionate, cultured and gifted scholar and teacher. His work on Greek poetry, particularly but not exclusively Greek lyric, continues to receive international recognition. Equally at home in Vienna or Rome, at the operatic festivals of Bayreuth or Glimmerglass, and well versed in several languages and literatures, Emmet Robbins brought a wide perspective to the Classical field that will be deeply missed. His collected works will be published by the University of Toronto Press in the near future, and the Professor Emmet Robbins Memorial Fund has been established as a permanent legacy at the University of Toronto (contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The program for the event can be seen here (PDF).

Pictures from the event can be viewed in the gallery.

George Bevan (PhD 2005) will be honoured by the Queen's University Alumni Association with the receipt of the Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching on Saturday, October 15th at the Gala Awards Dinner in Kingston.

http://queensu.ca/news/alumnireview/new-lessons-old-things

Emmet Robbins, Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Toronto, after a lengthy illness died on Tuesday, August 16, at Kensington Gardens Health Centre.

He was son of the late Dr. John E. Robbins and Catherine St Denis Robbins. A graduate of Fisher Park High School in Ottawa, he attended Carleton University, and subsequently graduated from the University of Toronto where he received B.A. (Honours Classics, 1963), M.A. (1965), and Ph.D. (1968) degrees. After several years abroad he returned to his alma mater in 1972 and taught at St. Michael's College; he served from 1990 to 2001 as Chair of the combined Department of Classics. A gifted lecturer, inspiring teacher, meticulous scholar, he was a devoted friend of colleagues and students alike. A talented musician of harpsichord and piano, an accomplished linguist, a perfectionist in all he did, yet modest to the extreme, he was filled with charm and wit and joie de vivre. Emmet is survived by his brother Bernie (Patti) of Ottawa, niece Catherine Robbins of Toronto, nephew John David Robbins also of Ottawa, and grandnephew baby Brandon Robbins.

Emmet's family expresses sincere gratitude to John Traill and Jay Macpherson, who truly cared for Emmet and acted with compassion and integrity in their capacity as joint guardians during his final years. They also wish to thank the caring staff of Kensington Gardens Health Centre.

A memorial service will be held in his honour at the Department of Classics, University of Toronto, 125 Queen's Park Crescent, Toronto, M5S 2C7.

The Prof. Emmet Robbins Memorial Fund has been established as a permanent legacy at U of T. In lieu of flowers, Prof. Robbins' family and friends have requested donations to be made to this fund for scholarships. For those wishing to honour Prof. Robbins in this way, please contact Celeste Richards at 416.978.0310 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Robert Maxwell writes that after graduating from UofT he became the  Classics Librarian (among many other hats) here at Brigham Young University's Harold  B. Lee Library. There he just completed the 2011 Summer  Institute of the American Society of Papyrologists (see  http://www.papyrology.org/index.php/news/4-announcement/26-summer and  http://www.papyrology.org/images/pdf/FlyerPapyrologicalSummerInstitute.pdf).  

"It was quite a treat to hold this six week institute here and get to meet a number of established papyrologists as well as students. It  also gave the Library a good chance to assess and improve its  papyrology holdings, which I personally enjoyed very much. The  Library was very helpful with extra funding and moral support, and  the seminar itself was held in the Library building. I was  particularly interested in this collection development project  because I used many of these same resources I was purchasing for the  BYU Library when I was a student at UT doing my dissertation, which  focused on papyri and inscriptions. The UT Libraries naturally had  nearly everything I needed, and now BYU's Library has a pretty  creditable collection in this area as well."

Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Timothy D. Barnes on his election as a Fellow of the British Academy (on Thursday 21 July) and to Emeritus Professor John N. Grant on the publication of his edition with translation of Lilio Gregorio Giraldi's Modern Poets in the I Tatti Renaissance Library (spring 2011).

Nicholas Arrigo has won an Undergraduate fellowship in the Jackman Humanities Institute:

Jackman Humanities Institute Undergraduate Fellowships, 2011-2012
We are pleased to announce the appointment of six undergraduate fellows for 2011-2012
who will be researching projects relevant to the theme of Location/Dislocation during
their senior year at the University of Toronto.

Nicholas Arrigo (UTSG Classics/French)
“Exilium Ovidianum: Factual and Fictional Dislocation in Ovid’s Tristia, Epistulae Ex
Ponto and Heroides”
Supervisor: Mary Nyquist (UTSG English/Women and Gender Studies)

Laura Boles (UTSG English/Religion/Spanish and Portuguese)
“Religion and Diaspora in Post-9/11 Literature”
Supervisor: Mark Kingwell (UTSG Philosophy)

Kate Bruce-Lockhart (UTSG History/English)
“Furthering the Cause of Freedom: Slave Agency and Abolition in Nineteenth-Century
Brazil”
Supervisor: Jeannine DeLombard (UTM English and Drama)

Wendy Byrnes (UTM English and Drama/UTM Historical Studies)
“Trampers, Sorcerers and Kidnappers: Locating ‘Gypsies’ in Nineteenth Century British
Fiction”
Supervisor: Jeannine DeLombard (UTM English and Drama)

Christopher Hiebert (UTSG Religion)
“Sacred City: The Making of Sacred Spaces in Toronto’s Tibetan Community”
Supervisor: Mark Kingwell (UTSG Philosophy)

Clara Rozee (UTSG English)
“Relocating Shakespeare: Postcolonial Adaptations and Women’s Rewritings of
Shakespeare’s Plays”
Supervisor: Mary Nyquist (UTSG English/Women and Gender Studies)

University of Toronto students have won several prizes and honourable mentions in the Classical Association Sight Competition. Here are the results, with University of Toronto students in bold.

CAC Sight Competition Winners for 2011

High School Latin

First Prize ($100.00) Valentina Beux, South Burnaby High School

Second Prize ($75.00) Jessica Zung, University of Toronto Schools

Third Prize ($50.00) Eric Merienuk, Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf

Honourable Mentions

Charles Hébert, Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf

Alvin Leung, University of Toronto Schools

Soohyun Park, University of Toronto Schools

Margaret H. Thompson Prize in Greek Sight Translation (Junior Greek)

First Prize ($150.00) Elizabeth Ten-Hove, McGill University

Second Prize ($100.00) Cristina Ichim, University of Toronto

Third Prize ($50.00) Mufei Jiang, University of Toronto

Honourable Mentions

Ross Kettleson, McGill University

Jose Campos, McMaster University

Junior Latin

First Prize ($150.00) Brett Bartlett, University of Waterloo

Second Prize ($100.00) Mufei Jiang, University of Toronto

Third Prize ($50.00) Sonya Tors, University of Toronto

No Honourable Mentions this year.

Senior Greek

First Prize ($150.00) Alessandro Sisti, University of Toronto

Second Prize ($100.00) Ruben Post, University of Victoria

Third Prize ($50.00) William Pemberton, Trent University

Honourable Mention

Laura Hare, University of Toronto

Peter Lawson Smith Prize in Latin Sight Translation (Senior Latin)

First Prize ($150.00) Jacob Currie, University of Toronto

Second Prize ($100.00) Alessandro Sisti, University of Toronto

Third Prize ($50.00) William Pemberton, Trent University

Honourable Mentions

Elizabeth Ten-Hove, McGill University

Nicholas Arrigo, University of Toronto